This is a blog of my experiences with dogs -- as an owner and as someone who worked with them professionally. Hopefully what I've learned from my experiences will also help you with caring for your own dog.

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Saturday, October 6, 2012

the Star Spinner toy for dogs: good for slowing down fast eaters!

I’m always looking for new toys to help keep my dogs’ minds active. I recently tried a toy called a Star Spinner Dog Toy Puzzle.

What is the Star Spinner?
The
Star Spinner is a toy that is advertised as “a brain workout for your
dogs”. It has two star-shaped levels of five chambers on each level. The
levels spin, the idea being that the dog has to work spin the levels to
expose treats or food that you put inside the chambers. Difficulty can
be changed by tightening the spinning mechanism so that it’s harder to
make the levels spin.
I’ve been using it for Halo at meal time. I fill the chambers with her kibble and let her go at it.

My opinion of this toy.
In
terms of mentally stimulating a dog, this toy is on the right track,
but I don’t actually think it does a good job of keeping a dog mentally
entertained for any length of time. It’s way too easy to figure out.
In
terms of difficulty, the instructions say “Continue to challenge your
dog by adding more treats inside more chambers”. I do not agree with
this. The makers also tried to give the toy different levels of
difficulty w/ the tightening mechanism, which is a good design element,
but it doesn’t actually make the game more mentally challenging. It
makes it more physically challenging, encouraging the dog to scratch at
the toy more.
It’s the overall design that makes this puzzle too easy. As soon as the chambers are revealed on a level, they’re all
revealed and the game is over for that level. There are only two
levels, so the game ends quickly. Halo, who really isn’t the sharpest
knife in the drawer, figured out this puzzle very quickly. It only takes
her a couple of minutes, even on the “difficult” setting, to get at all
of her food.
I think it would be better if some of the chambers
became covered at the same time as some of the chambers were opened. I
also wish it had at least one more level, maybe even two. Additionally, I
wish it was a domestic product (it’s made in China and I prefer to buy
domestic products if I can).
I think this toy has a good
foundational idea, but the design needs some work if they want to be
able to honestly advertise it as “a brain workout for your dogs”.

A good use for this toy.
While
I don’t think this toy is particularly successful at being a
mentally-stimulating toy, I do think it does a good job of slowing down a
dog that tends to almost inhale their food because they’re eating so
fast. Halo scarfs her food down as quickly as possible, and this toy did
a good job of slowing down her eating a bit.

About Me

Hello! My name is Laura. I am currently a stay-at-home-mother caring for one wonderful little boy, two pound puppy mutts, and of course one grown and very handsome man who would be oh-so lost without me! Though... I would also be lost without him, so thank goodness we have eachother.
My interests are endless and include much of the natural world, but I suppose the three main things that define my life so far are ecology, dogs, and art.
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I’ll tell you what I do. And I’ll tell you why I do it. I was on a morning walk with Leopold and Halo today when an off-leash, m...

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